Odd Treasure
by TinySprite
Summary: Link gets a surprise when treasure hunting!


So here it is, my first Zelda fic! A ton of thanks to Karama9 for betaing this!

Disclaimer: TinySprite owns nothing of Zelda.

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He was on his way to Tingle Island when he heard it, the oh so faint musical tones that indicated undersea treasure. Glancing up, Link twisted around on his seat in King of Red Lions, trying to locate the tell-tale light that would show him where the treasure was. The soft light was south of him, not too much out of his way on the trip.

Smiling, young Link readjusted his course to get to the treasure, with only the mildest of grumbling from King. They both knew that a ton of rupees were needed to pay Tingle's high prices, prices that they had to pay if they wanted the triforce maps deciphered. Hopefully this treasure would contain some of the needed money or at least something they could sell for a good price.

As Link came closer to the light, the music got louder as the light got softer before finally going out entirely. The small blond stifled a sigh and instead kept a careful ear out for where the music seemed the loudest. It would have been a big help to still have the light, but at least he had the music. He'd asked King once why the spots had light and music but only got a long and complicated explanation that seemed to boil down to magic of some sort.

Finally locating the apparent spot, Link quickly took down the sail and set up the grappling hook crane in its stead. Making sure the hook was situated where it needed to be, the young boy pressed the lever to drop it, easing himself into a more comfortable position to wait.

After a few minutes though, his mind began to drift, focusing yet again on his younger sister Aryll. While he was happy that she was finally free from the Forsaken Fortress, it still worried him that she was now on a pirate ship. Though he knew Tetra's (or should he think of her as Zelda now?) crew were a bunch of good guys, Link would have preferred it if they'd taken Aryll home to Outset Island.

Perhaps she'd begged them to let her stay? It would make sense, for the other captured girls had been returned home to Windfall Island and besides, Aryll had always wanted to go on an adventure herself. With a sigh, Link moved to stretch his back, making up his mind that his little sister would come to no harm with the pirate crew and would be returned home soon enough.

Startled forward by the sudden stop of the grappling hook, the blond leaned forward as the crane automatically lifted the treasure upwards at a faster rate than it lowered. Seeing the quickly growing shadow, Link felt his excitement grow, wondering if it was rupees or a heart piece or perhaps something else that he could either sell or maybe give away as a present.

However, his excitement was quickly replaced by confusion when the crane cleared the water to reveal that in its grasp was a ….clay pot? Held by its lip, the pot was extremely large and a dull brown, though whether it'd always been like that or had become that way from all its time on the sea floor wasn't clear. Shaking his head, Link briefly caught the gaze of King of Red Lions, a little relieved to see that the knowledgeable boat looked just as confused.

Curious about it, the boy released the grappling hook so as to drop the pot into the boat. Ignoring King's look of disapproval, Link moved to stand next to the pot and rapped it with his knuckles. Through the greasy feel of some kind of build up, Link hit something that was definitely harder than clay, which would explain how the hook was able to bring it up without damage. Wondering if his hunch was correct, Link drew his sword and gently banged the bottom of the hilt against a clean-ish spot on the pot. The resulting tone told him it was definitely metal of some kind, a luxury item given its large size.

Carefully gripping the oversized lip of the pot with his free hand, the blond steadied himself and looked into it, disappointed to find it was too full of murky water to reveal its contents, if there were any in the first place. Repositioning himself, Link slowly lowered his sword into the water and moved it in a slow circle, further disappointed when he felt it hit nothing and just barely seemed to scratch the bottom of the pot. Standing back, Link frowned and dug up a spare rag to wipe off his sword as well as clean his hands of gunk.

That done, the boy readjusted the crane again before dropping its hook once more. He could still clearly hear the music, so that meant treasure was really in that spot. Perhaps the crane had just been off and grabbed the pot by mistake.

Glancing at it again, Link wondered what it would look like cleaned up. People could always use more pots and large ones like this were a little hard to come by, especially metal ones. He could take it back home to Outset Island as a gift for his grandmother or one of the other island natives. If none of them needed it, then he'd just sell it to the merchant Beedle or someone on Windfall Island.

The crane seemed to work faster this time, now correctly bringing up the metal treasure chest. Once it was placed in the boat, Link eagerly pried it open, practically bouncing for joy at the sight of the silver-grey stone inside. Two hundred rupees in one go was a great perk to his mood, as well as King of Red Lion's, given away with the boat's barely heard chuckle. Shoving the metal chest to one side with a mental reminder to sell it to Beedle later, Link put the sail back up and continued on his journey to Tingle Island, though with a reduced speed now due to the extra weight.

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This actually happened to me once in game, though the situation was different and the pot just got tossed back into the sea. I've never been able to recreate it since. Feedback is much appreciated!


End file.
